For British Broadcasters, The Beat Goes On In Coventry

COVENTRY — Melissa Girardin leaned toward classmate Jeremy Davis and quickly scanned a list of questions. A sound engineer with the British Broadcasting Corp. thrust a microphone between them.

``Does everyone get along in chorus?'' Girardin asked.

``Pretty much everyone hangs out together,'' Davis answered. ``The best thing is the united voices together. It kind of lifts your spirits.''

The Coventry High School students' words will soon be broadcast in the United Kingdom. BBC Radio 3 is spending the week in Coventry, recording a series on high school music programs in the United States. It is the BBC's first feature on high school music programs outside the United Kingdom, and it is using the Coventry program to represent the quintessential American high school music program.

The series, which will include five 15-minute segments geared toward students ages 14 to 18, is scheduled to be aired the third week in November.

Coventry students are conducting many of the interviews themselves while BBC host Tom Pearson conducts others. The students also will interview musician Paul Winter and members of the University of Connecticut marching band, among others, about music.

Students are telling the BBC that music is important in this small- town school. In Coventry, they said, there's no such thing as a ``band geek'' or a ``chorus dweeb.''

``The band is such a high percentage of the school. The people in sports are in band and chorus, too. I think it's a cool thing. I don't think we're dorks and dweebs,'' said Girardin, a 17-year-old senior who plays clarinet in the band.

``It's not only the losers. It's a group of nice kids,'' said Meredith Mickel, a 17-year-old senior who plays flute. ``You mix with a lot of people you wouldn't mix with because of high school cliques.''

Of the 420 students at Coventry High, 117 are in band and 42 are in chorus. The band is so big it meets in five sections during the school day; the entire group meets only after school. Former band director Carl Salina, a longtime teacher who died last year, helped earn the band an outstanding reputation in the community and the state.

Claire McArthur of Coventry, England, now a production assistant with the BBC, learned about the Coventry, Conn., band and chorus when she was involved in an exchange program nine years ago. She liked what she saw.

In the United Kingdom, music theory is taught in high school classrooms and band, particularly, is an extracurricular activity.

``Coventry always stuck in my mind. I came over when I was 16. It was like `Wow, America,' '' McArthur said. ``When you're in a music group, you're one big family.''

The BBC team is trying to give British teenagers a sense of that family. Pearson, the program host, asked band director Scott Marsland about what it's like to handle such a large group of students. Marsland said they can be difficult to teach when they all get together.

``The kids here overall are good kids,'' Marsland said. ``I think when they get together in large groups, they lose their brains. It's difficult getting them to stay on task.''

In small groups, Marsland said, the band is much easier to handle -- as evidenced at one band practice Wednesday. The early-morning session focused on a Christmas piece titled, ``O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.''

Marsland led the band through a new rhythm written on the blackboard. The students tried it. They struggled. Then, just before the end of class, they played it perfectly.